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Coming soon: MinimOSD!

Posted by Sam Kelly on November 10, 2011 at 5:00pm

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Hi guys! I'm giving you a preview of an upcoming product from the DIY Drones store, the MinimOSD, a minimal Arduino-based on-screen display board. It's tailored for use with ArduPilot Mega and the MAVlink protocol, and designed to be as compact as possible.

It's main components are an ATmega328P 8 bit microcontroller with an Arduino bootloader, and a MAX7456 monochrome on-screen display. Programming is done through an FTDI-compatible 6-pin header.

It features two independent power and ground sections to isolate the OSD's analog stage: a +5V section for the ATmega and the OSD's digital stage, powered through the FTDI cable or other +5V source; and a regulated +5V section for the OSD's analog stage, powered through the video in/out header and capable of handling up to +12V input. Solder jumpers are available to combine the two power and ground sections if desired.

Spec lists are the best, so here's one!

  • ATmega328P with Arduino bootloader
  • MAX7456 monochrome on-screen display
  • FTDI cable compatible pinout
  • Standard 6-pin ISP header
  • Two independent power sections with an LED indicator on each
  • Solder jumpers for combining the power sections
  • +5V 500mA regulator for up to +12V supply input
  • Solder jumper for PAL video option
  • Exposed test points for HSYNC and LOS
  • Dimensions: 0.7"W x 1.7"L (2.4" w/ pins as shown) x 0.3"H

The production version won't be green, and we're not too fond of blue anymore, so expect something different on future products ;)

(And yes, I know I missed a decoupling cap on the board in the photo. Sorry Chris!)

Expected release date is within 2-3 weeks, price is TBD. Watch this space! UPDATE: Price will be $89.99 USD.

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Comments

  • apocolipse November 11, 2011 at 7:22am

    So will using this mean no ability to use an xbee?

  • Scott Plunkett November 11, 2011 at 6:31am

    This is so awesome...I was about half way into the design on one of these for my ArduStation HUB project...now I can just drop in a header and add it in.

     

    I'll be watching for release date and pricing.  Assuming this is going to be OS, can we get schematic/ layout/ code?

     

  • Dimitri November 11, 2011 at 4:49am

    The good part is that it will certainly be possible to put it on groundstation ! (to integrate the telemetry received on the video received)

  • Russkel November 11, 2011 at 2:36am
    Very cool. Lets talk dollars and cents?
  • Marc Puig November 11, 2011 at 12:38am

    Have you written the firmware? I suppose it will be opensource... I actually use a similar osd (arduino pro mini + sparkfun breakout board for MAX7456) with a modified C-OSD firmware using a custom protocol, but I was thinking to implement the MAVlink protocol.

  • Ben Levitt November 11, 2011 at 12:18am

    Thanks Chris.  Sounds like we added MavLink support just in time!  :)

  • Distributor
    UnmannedTechShop.co.uk November 11, 2011 at 12:12am

    Looks great!  Looking forward to the release

  • 3D Robotics
    Chris Anderson November 10, 2011 at 11:39pm

    Ben: You just connect it to the same serial telemetry port as the Xbee and it listens to the MAVLink stream. The onboard microprocessor parses the MAVLink and sends the relevant bits to the video overlay.

  • Ben Levitt November 10, 2011 at 11:34pm

    This sounds great.  Any idea how the control interface is going to work?  Will a master microcontroller command it via a serial link?  (Or SPI?)  And how low-level is the control of the OSD content?  I'm interested in adding support for this OSD board to MatrixPilot on the UDB.

  • Dano November 10, 2011 at 8:27pm

    Decoupling capacitors?.... Yes! Always! 

     

This reply was deleted.